On episode #147 I talk with David Swain, a BC based birder, trekker, supporter of high elevation village schools in Nepal, and an executive for a large tree growing company. Overall a really interesting person whom I met on my recent cruise to Antarctica.
David started and champions the Altitude Project, a Canadian charity that provides support for several schools and villages in the super-high elevation villages in Nepal that David visited on treks in Nepal. We talk about his trekking, his birding in Nepal, his work for a large Canadian tree growing company, and more.
You can find David on Facebook to follow him and his project.
Thanks for listening.
Good birding and good day!
Category: Blog
The Bird Banter Podcast #146 with Peter Kaestner additional information
On this episode you’ll hear from Peter Kaestner, the birder who has seen more species of birds than any living human, using the IOC checklist currently shown on IGoTerra Peter lists 9,729 of the 10,933 extant species on the IOC checklist. That is 89% of the living species in the world. I had thought that there must not be any places Peter could go and find more than a handful of new “lifers” but I was wrong. Peter has trips planned to the Phillipines and Viet Nam where he hopes to add more-or-less 50 new species to his list in each place.
Peter worked for a career for the U.S. Diplomatic Service. Before hearing Peter talk on my recent cruise to Antarctica I had little idea of what a career as a U.S. diplomat involved. It was a great career for Peter, leading him to life and see areas of the world most of us will never experience.
Peter and his wife now often travel for pleasure and birding, as well as diving, and Peter also works for Rockjumper Worldwide Birding Adventures as a part-time guide. This gives him the chance to help others experience the world of birding, as well as travel extensively.
You can reach Peter via e-mail. He keeps his e-mail address current on his eBird profile. It’s not hard to find him, just look under the explore Top-100 list for the world, all-time. He’s of course #1.
To read about the Antarctica trip, here is a link to my trip report.
As of this time, Peter’s most recent lifer I believe was the endangered and remote Hooded Grebe. You can see a great video of this bird by a previous guest, Paula (and Michael) Webster on YouTube here.
Thanks for listening. As always if you have suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from on the podcast, let me know
Until next time, Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #145 with Victor and Ruben Stoll additinoal info.
On this episode I catch up with Victor and Ruben Stoll as they recover from their record breaking 2022 Lower-48 big year. I had a chance to meet them at the Lake Forest Park, WA Red-flanked Bluetail stakeout last March, and they caught a shower and a few hours of sleep at our home before heading to a Westport Seabirds pelagic trip.
You can see their eBird profiles for more details. Ruben eBird Profile Victor eBird Profile
You can also find them on facebook. Victor on Facebook Ruben on Facebook
To hear about Tiffany Kersten’s 2021 Lower-48 big year check out The Bird Banter Podcast #122 with Tiffany Kersten.
We talk about Jerry Cooper’s book: Birdfinder: A Birder’s Guide to Planning North American Trips on the episode. It was fun to hear that other birders have found this book as helpful as I have over the years. I really think that Victor and Ruben should think about writing an update to this book. They certainly have the first-hand experiences to do so. The 1995 book is out of print, but you can find it used at Buteo Books.
I’m not sure but I think this is an article about the high wind storm the Stoll’s encountered on their chase to see the Garganey in Montana in May.
It sounds like Victor and Ruben have as high a regard as I do about Michael Todd, a previous podcast guest and Tennessee birder who was on episode #124.
As always, if you have suggestions for podcast guests, please let me know using the Contact form here.
Until next time, good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #144 with George Armistead Additional Info.
On this episode you will hear from George Armistead, a well known ABA birder, tour leader, podcaster, and all around interesting guy. We talk about his our trip to Antarctica, so after the last episode where I talk about the trip in detail, George can add another perspective and some new stories.
Check out George’s bird tour company Hillstar Nature .
You can find George on Facebook and Instagram too. Hillstar Nature has their own Facebook page too.
I promised more information on a number of topics in this post too. To keep this from being just too much I’ll keep it brief with links to more detail if you’re interested.
Beginning in 2011 the South Georgia Heritage Trust began the eradication of rats on the South Georgia Islands. This was controversial in that it used rodenticides, and was by far the largest land mass with rodent infestation that eradication had ever been attempted. The project was highly successful, and by 2016 rats were likely completely eradicated, but it was not until 2018 that the official declaration of a rat free South Georgia was given. You can read more about it here. Birders who visited South Georgia on the recent expedition cruise I was on saw many South Georgia Pipits, a marked difference from stories of birders who visited 20 years ago (I missed the visits with Covid isolation). The continued vigillence is intense, and we had rat-sniffing dogs search our ship before one landing.
Early in his career Geroge worked in several capacities at the Academy of Natual Sciences in Philidelphia. If I get to Philidelphia again it will be on my must-see list of places to explore. It is the oldest natural history museum in the U.S. and has a great collection of bird specimens. I remember many years ago speakers and others talking of getting photographs from VIREO, the program George mentioned in the episode.
The Bird Safe Philly project reminded me of talking with two prior guests on the topic of light polution and bird safety. First was the episode with Alex Israel of the New York Audubon Society and learning about the Safe Flights Program there. YOu may also enjoy hearing about the dangers to birds from glass collisions, especially in homes like you may live in on the episode with Dr. Daniel Klem.
For many birders the Christmas Season brings the fellowship, birding and experience of the Christmas Bird Counts. George talks about how important the CBCs have been to him, especially the early ones when he met other young birders and the joy of the fellowship of birding. It is still not too late to find a CBC for this year. It’s easy to find your local count or another. If you are looking in Washington State where I live, look here on the WOS websitge. For a worldwide look, check this cool site.
I’ll end with a link to this site explaining Katabatic Winds. In summary it is a wind tha flows downhill after cooling and changing pressure. They can be extraordinary in places like South Georgia with big mountains near the ocean.
Again, thanks for reading and listening. Until next time, Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #143: Antarctica Additional Info.
I will make this unusually brief, as I wrote a full trip report under the Ed’s birding notes tab of this page. See lots of photos on my Antarctica Flickr album.
Stay tuned for the next Bird Banter episode with George Armistad. I hope have several upcoming episode with fellow birders I met on the trip.
The ABA was a main driver behind filling a ship with birders for a birding focused expedition cruise, which added greatly to the focus and fellowship on the ship.
For me one of the best parts of the trip was meeting Alvaro Jaramillo, and spending time with him and his co-leader Ricardo Matus. Both are not just extremely accomplished birders and guides, but have a fabulous depth of knowledge about the bird world. Alvaros lecture on the likely new species split from Wilson’s Storm-petrel was great, but all trip we got to learn life history and exquisite details of innumerable topics. Super fun to be around Alvaro and Ricardo.
Rockjumper Birding was the organizer and primary birding tour managers, and did a fine job.
If all goes as planned my next episode will be a talk with one of the top guides on the trip, and fellow podcaster George Armistad. Follow his podcst (along with Alvaro Jaramillo and Mollee Brown) Life List: A Birding Podcast.
Until next time, good birding and good day.
The Bird Banter Podcast #142 with Francis Canto Jr. Additional Info.
As I mention on the episode, Belize was one of the first places outside the U.S. where I birded with my late wife Kay. We took a trip to Belize, and while at an ecolodge hired a guide for a couple of half days, and enjoyed the dry tropical forest birding there. We also took a side trip to Tikal, the famous ruins in Guatamala and also spent some time at Caye Calker on the coast. Overall a great trip. Talking with Francisco brought back really good memories.
Francisco was recommended as a guest by a listener, which is one of my favorite ways to find great guests for the podcast, so please let me know who you’d like to hear from on the show.
I had no idea that hawk watching was such a special time in Belize, and seeing large numbers of Hook-billed Kites there sounds pretty unique and intriguing.
I did know that for a small country, Belize has a nice mix of habitats, from coastal to the mountains, and all areas in between. You can check out Francisco’s eBird profile here.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #141 with Mathew and Levi Radford- Father and Son Birders Additional Info.
On this episode it was cool to talk with avid father and son birders Mathew and Levi Radford. They have been birding together for about a decade, since Levi was a young boy, and they continue to enjoy birding and being advocates for the environment, birds and birding.
Levi is just getting started at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater as a freshman there. We talk about the owling that they did just a couple of days before this recording.
You can find them on Facebook. Levi Matthew Father and Son Birding
or by email Mathew at–> mathewradford2-at- gmail-dot-com and for Levi–> featherfanatics1-at- gmail-dot- com
To hear from Zach Poland, my prior Okalahoma podcast guest, check out The Bird Banter Podcast #114 with Zach Poland
I talk in the introduction about our ABC Birding group trip to the Washington coast and you can see the trip report on the ABC website here.
Here is a photo of the Hudsonian Godwit we found at Tokeland.
Thanks for following. Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #140 with Doug Hitchcox additional info.
On this episode you’ll hear from Doug Hitchcox, a top Maine birder who recently saw his 400th (and since 401and 402nd) species for Maine, one of only a few birders to reach this milestone, and the youngest. Read about it in the Portland Phoenix here.
Doug is a staff educator for the Maine Audubon Society, and state orgainzation independent of National Audubon.
You can reach Doug at the Maine Audubon by email naturalist@maineaudubon.org
You can follow Doug on Twitter @dhitchcox
I have loved the times I’ve visited the Gilsland Farm site, and you can read about it here.
I’ve heard about the Hog Island Audubon Camp on a prior episode with Christian Hagenlocher and you can read about the camp here.
For context here is a screenshot of the top 100 Maine eBirders
This is what the White Ibis, which was Doug’s 400th species in Maine looks like in Florida.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #139 with Deborah Green Additional Info.
On this episode I talk with Deborah Green, the president of the Orange Audubon Society who is doing double duty as the chairperson of the Dec 2022 North Shore Birding Festival, sponsored by the Orange Audubon Society, which features 70 field trips as well as speakers, etc. The festival is centered around the north shore of Lake Apopka, a very large lake in central Florida. Here is a look at the lake on Google Maps.
We talk about many of the great birds you could see at this festival. I’ve been fortunate enough to see many of these, and so can show a few photos of some of them (though many not in Florida)
Deborah is also a frequent visitor at birding festivals, and we talk about a few of her favorites.
She mentions the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival https://www.rgvbf.org/ I’ve attended this and it is really good. There are trips to get Ferruginous Pygmy Owl as well as most of the valley’s winter specialties.
She also mentions the San Diego Bird Festival, which I can also vouch for as a great event. https://www.sandiegoaudubon.org/birding/san-diego-bird-festival/san-diego-bird-festival.html
Here are links to several other prominent festivals as well as ones that seem pretty interesting to me:
Biggest Week in Birding https://www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/
Point Pelee Birding Festival https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/on/pelee/activ/festival
New River Birding Festival https://birding-wv.com/index.php/birding-nature-festival/registration?fbclid=IwAR0j0MoiAzGeGBaufo8xWshcTZC2wNrY4xewJDQ_lKv2MiV2XUbV5l096wE
Down East Birding Festival https://www.facebook.com/downeastbirdfest
Acadia Birding Festival https://acadiabirdingfestival.com/
Kachemak Bay Birding Festival in Homer, Alaska: https://www.homeralaska.org/events/annual-events/kachemak-bay-shorebird-festival/
Everglades Birding Festival http://www.evergladesbirdingfestival.com/
Morro Bay Winter Birding Festival: https://morrobaybirdfestival.org/
Winter Wings Festival in Klamath Bay, OR https://winterwingsfest.org/
Indiana Dunes Birding Festival: https://indunesbirdingfestival.com/
Great Salt Lake Bird Festival: https://greatsaltlakeaudubon.org/events/great-salt-lake-bird-festival
Monterey Bay Birding Festival https://montereybaybirdingfestival.org/
Cape May Fall Festival: https://njaudubon.org/cape-may-fall-festival/
I’m sure that there are lots more great options, and please leave a comment if you have recommendations.
The Bird Banter Podcast #138 with Alex Harper Additional Info.
On this episode Alex Harper and I talk about birding in the areas around Las Vegas, NV. Sin City is not a place many think of as a birdind destination, but is a place many birders are likely to find themselves for various reasons. Matt and the other guides with Bird Las Vegas are available to take visitors out on half or whole day guided trips during their visits to the city. Alex talks about the nice variety of habitats available, and the cool desert species available.
You can reach Alex through his website on the contact page or by email alexkharper-at-gmail-dot-com
Alex grew up in Florida, and I hope his family is safe from Hurricaine Ian’s destruction.
Good birding and good day!